Film Synopsis - Planning Opening Sequence

The initial idea for my film has changed drastically from genre to genre as I have thought of a suitable idea for my opening film sequence.  I want to make sure that I present an artistic and individual film idea that will show varied shots in the opening, to really attract my audience's attention in interesting angles and settings making it original.  I have thought about a romantic genre; presented in field settings, yet it may not be very suitable as I am not sure of how the story would progress from there.  It also would be difficult to shoot warm tones in spring.  The opening sequence would focus on a girl and a story behind her love life; showing contrasting and alternating shots that would present flashbacks and the present.  The shots would present how this girl was once happy yet implies her depression after a break up- or some sort of dramatic incident in that area.

I think however; to produce an opening sequence that could be really original would be to really experiment with the Thriller genre and different ways of engaging the audience from the opening shots that should hopefully build suspense.

Genre: Thriller

Audience: Aficionados

Logline:  A girl slowly loses grip of reality; as her mental condition worsens due to traumatic experiences of her family's death that keep haunting her leading her to suicide. 

I have created a brief character overview who the film will base around; Alice, 20 years old living in a flat in a run down urban setting.  Studying fine art at the local college, Alice has taken a few months of treatment and rest after her mother and younger brother were brutally murdered.  Already suffering from a mood disorder; the news were so shocking and she suffers from depression.  Her aunt living only a few blocks down the road, drops by occasionally yet is too busy looking after her own family.  Alice cannot rely on victim support for too long; as after a few months she is forgotten about and left to resume back to normal life.

Of course, the events slowly play on her mind day after day; as the mental image of her family's dead bodies found in the lake after savagely stabbed by a killer, she loses her mind as she lives in terror at home, lonely and frightened.  She starts to imagine the killer, imagining him there in her apartment; leading her to have regular anxiety attacks and panic attacks.  Alice starts to lose a sense of reality, hiding everyday at night as she starts to see the ghost of the killer threatening her life as well in her every step.  He also haunts her dreams, as she wakes up screaming from nightmares at night, but opens her eyes to see him there.  Unsure if the killer was a fragment of her imagination to begin with at first, Alice is now certain that he's really there living within her, to haunt her of how he brutally killed her family, as if to say "You're next".

After her life spirals out of control as she sees ghosts of the past; she ends her life tragically as she can no longer cope.  Alice wasn't able to return to the real world as her imagination swept her up into the world of it's own, creating a parallel universe where she was haunted every second of her life by her family's deaths and the man to blame.  The idea of my film is really inspired by the thriller genre as it presents how reality and the ghost of my characters imagination all  merge into one.

The opening sequence

The opening sequence of the film will contain shots that will present the girl in her home, as she lies in a bath staring blankly into space.  Shots will cut quickly into the next as a close up shot focus's on the tap slowly dripping water.  The echo of the dripping water will foreshadow the end scene of the film when the blood of her suicide will be dripping, also in the bath off the side.  The shots will quickly cut to the setting of the lake; with a barred area where no access is allowed; as her parents murder scene would have taken place.  We suddenly hear the phone ring loudly, yet the girl stays motionless and not responding.  The ringing stops, a shot cuts to her feet as she climbs out of the bath following her to a room.  The setting of the lake will be shown a few more times; to emphasise the death.

I am going to develop the idea further of my opening sequence to make sure that it is more effective and really emphasising the thriller genre; building suspense.